New Funding For CGIAR Breeding To Boost Food and Nutrition Security In Africa – International Potato Center

CGIAR is to receive a USD$30 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop modern and efficient breeding systems for root, tuber, and banana (RTB) staple crops for sub-Saharan Africa. The work aims to harness the untapped potential of those crops to improve the food and nutrition security, income, and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, building on CGIAR’s previous work in the field.

RTB crops – banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato and yam – are some of the most important staple crops in Africa and the world’s poorest regions. They provide nearly 50% of total caloric intake in D.R. Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda, 30% in Uganda, and 25% in Africa’s most populated country, Nigeria.